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CNN LOU DOBBS MONEYLINE
Dow Down 27; Nasdaq Down 17
Aired May 7, 2003 - 18:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(INTERRUPTED BY LIVE EVENT)
LOU DOBBS, HOST: Spanish Prime Minister, Jose Maria Aznar, and President Bush wrapping up what was, between the two of them, about 15 minutes of combined statements, a broad range of statements.
Let's go to Suzanne Malveaux at the White House. Suzanne, the prime minister and the president looked like, indeed, they were partners tonight.
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, one thing that really stood out is that this White House really wants to move the ball forward and as quickly as possible. The president not only calling for the suspension of sanctions, but for the lifting of sanctions saying that they would go ahead with that U.N. Security Council resolution calling for that fairly soon.
Also, however, acknowledging the expectations from European, as well as Arab, allies that, yes, the U.S. is committed to the Middle East road map, peace plan between the Palestinians and the Israelis and that he took the opportunity to recommit the administration to moving forward in that effort.
Also, he was asked by one of the journalists, well, what about Russia and France, both of them against this early repeal of the U.N. sanctions, lifting those sanctions, and he described the mood very differently than before when he dealt with the U.N. Security Council. He said the atmosphere prior to the war has changed, that we want to work through, and he also talked about using a very familiar argument from the White House, to do what is best for the Iraqis. This is something that they hope, by using this type of language, it will be more conciliatory, they will be able to bring people closer together.
And finally, one last point here is that the president has been rewarding, he's been thanking allies, those who have agreed with the administration and the war with Iraq, but he took the time when asked about what about Chile? What about Mexico? Are they still friends of the administration, and he said, absolutely. They're our friends, period.
And he reasserted the commitment of the United States for that free trade agreement that will move forward with Chile. Lou?
DOBBS: And, Suzanne, he asserted Spain, along with the United Kingdom and the United States, as sponsors of that resolution to lift those sanctions, full partnership for Spain as a result.
Suzanne Malveaux from the White House, thank you very much.
Tonight, persuasive, if not compelling, evidence that Saddam Hussein did possess weapons of mass destruction. The most senior U.S. general in Iraq said his forces have found what he terms plenty of documents that prove Saddam Hussein was making chemical and biological weapons.
The Pentagon also today confirmed it has evidence that Hussein used mobile biological weapons laboratories. Our senior Pentagon correspondent, Jamie McIntyre, will have that story for us tonight.
And just about everyone in Congress wants to cut taxes. So does the president, of course, but no one seems to be able to agree on how much taxes should be cut and which taxes should be cut. The chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, Congressman Bill Thomas, will be here to talk about why action is required to create jobs.
And we'll hear why Detroit's addiction to gas-guzzling SUVs could be making this country dependent on Middle East oil. Robert Kennedy, Jr. Arianna Huffington will join us to talk about how the car industry in Detroit could take action to cut this country's oil consumption and dependence.
The commander of U.S. forces in Iraq today said his troops have plenty of evidence that Saddam's regime had weapons of mass destruction. Lieutenant General William Wallace said the coalition has discovered documents that prove there was an active weapons program.
Also today, the Pentagon confirmed it's found a suspected mobile bioweapons lab. Senior Pentagon correspondent, Jamie McIntyre, reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN SENIOR PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (voice over): The Pentagon says this truck trailer stopped by Kurds in northern Iraq last month is almost certainly a mobile biological laboratory.
COLIN POWELL, SECRETARY OF STATE: What we have seen so far of the labs is that it matches very closely, as was said in the Pentagon today.
MCINTYRE: Officials say the size of the vehicle and the equipment inside, including a fermenter and air cleaning system, match the description given to the U.S. by an Iraqi defector before the war and used to produce these drawings shown to the U.N.
STEPHEN CAMBONE, DEFENSE UNDERSECRETARY FOR INTELLIGENCE: The experts have been through it, and they have not found another plausible use for it.
MCINTYRE: But burned by previous premature suggestions of WMD finds, the Pentagon is withholding a final verdict until the suspected germ factory, which appears to have been cleaned with strong ammonia, can be dismantled to search for trace amounts of bioagents. CAMBONE: On the smoking gun, I mean the -- I don't know.
MCINTYRE: So far, the search for Iraq's banned weapons is fruitless. Of the 576 suspected WMD sites the U.S. identified before the war, teams have now inspected 70. No banned weapons were found there nor at 40 additional sites discovered since the war began.
Could the intelligence have been faulty?
VICE ADMIRAL LOWELL JACOBY, DIRECTOR, DEFENSE INTELLIGENCE AGENCY: It's too early to tell. It really is. That will -- that will come more clear as there's more access to the people who are making the decisions.
MCINTYRE: The commander of U.S. ground forces has his own theory. Appearing by teleconference from Iraq, Lieutenant General William Wallace told a Pentagon briefing that the time between when the U.N. inspectors left and the U.S. troops arrived was so short, the Iraqis didn't have time to retrieve any weapons from their hiding places.
LIEUTENANT GENERAL WILLIAM WALLACE, U.S. FIFTH CORP COMMANDER: Because they were so clever in disguising them and burying them so deep, that they themselves had a problem getting to them.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MCINTYRE: The Pentagon hopes to prove that the mobile lab was used to make deadly anthrax or botulinum toxin, but even if the tests come back positive, it will show only that Iraq once had bioweapons, not that it had them at the beginning of the war. Lou?
DOBBS: Jamie, thank you. Jamie McIntyre, our senior Pentagon correspondent.
National Security Advisor, Condoleezza Rice, today accused France of taking NATO hostage during the Iraq war. She added that France threatened smaller countries with reprisals if they supported the war against Saddam Hussein.
It is the latest in a series of critical remarks by senior U.S. officials about some NATO countries. Kitty Pilgrim reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KITTY PILGRIM, CNNfn CORRESPONDENT (voice over):With allies like these, well, what are you going to do with allies like these? That's the message today from top U.S. officials.
U.S. National Security Advisor, Condoleezza Rice, railed against France and Germany today, telling Spanish newspapers, quote, "Nobody should take NATO hostage.", adding, "It was very unsettling that Germany and France tried to prevent NATO from reinforcing the security of Turkey. There were many unsettling things in that process.", unquote. NATO found it hard to come to a decision about the collective defense of Turkey in the event of war in Iraq. The moment was decried as a deep split in the 50-year-old Atlantic Alliance.
In an interview with CNN TURK, Paul Wolfowitz took on another ally, Turkey, saying it should accept it, quote, "made a mistake", unquote, by not offering more support. Turkey's parliament voted down allowing U.S. troops to stage a northern front in Iraq.
PAUL WOLFOWITZ, DEPUTY SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: At the end of the day, I think Turkey's paid a bigger price for that than we have. I think, for one thing, the whole economic package could have been something much more substantial, but I also believe we would have achieved more rapidly the kind of stability in northern Iraq that is as much in Turkey's interest as it is in ours.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PILGRIM: Mr. Wolfowitz added that Turkey should follow Washington's lead on Syria and Iran. The message to our allies is loud and clear, we could use a little more support here. Lou?
DOBBS: Kitty, thank you very much. Kitty Pilgrim.
A huge European contract for aircraft engines has been awarded to a European consortium, reportedly after pressure from France and Germany. The $3.5 billion contract was about to be awarded to Pratt & Whitney, Canada, a subsidiary of United Technologies, but it was awarded instead to Europrop International" after the multinational group cut its price at the last minute.
The engines will power the new A-400N military transport aircraft. "The Wall Street Journal" reported France and Germany threatened to pull out of the project if it did not have European engines.
Turning to Wall Street, stocks today took a bit of a breather from a spring rally. The Dow Jones Industrials down 27 points. The Nasdaq fell 17 points. The S&P 500 lost just about a half percent. Christine Romans with more on the trading day - Christine.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNNfn CORRESPONDENT: Well, Lou, a strong volume declining stocks only slightly ahead of advancing issues, and a third of the Dow stocks closed higher and earnings season is almost over. With S&P 500 profits up more than 13 percent it's the best earnings growth since the third quarter of 2000 and now four quarters in a row of positive earnings.
Now, that earnings progress among the catalyst for this spring stock rally, the Dow up seven percent so far this quarter, the broader S&P 500 and the Nasdaq up even more.
Meanwhile, 91 percent of the S&P 500 stocks are above their 50- day moving average. Now, look at that, that's rare. Technician John Rogue (ph) highlights just a handful of times that's happened in recent memory, in June, 1997, March, '98, and November, 1998, and of course right now.
And he points out, Lou, that each of those examples occurred in a secular bull market and was not followed by an important market setback although he hasn't ruled out, a lot of technicians don't rule out, maybe a little consolidation. It's been a pretty good spring so far - Lou.
DOBBS: That's a little bit like the one-armed economist, isn't it? The fact is that it occurred early in each of those secular cycles.
ROMANS: Absolutely, early, and there were gains to follow so 91 percent of the S&P 500 companies above the 50-day moving average. It's rare but it can be a good time.
DOBBS: A good time, I like it. Christine, thank you very much, Christine Romans.
Former Enron executive Rex Shelby today surrendered to the FBI. Shelby, one of five executives from Enron's broadband division charged last week. A total of 15 now charged. Under the 50 executives for the rest of Corporate America charged and all of that coming in 520 days since Enron's bankruptcy. No one has, of course, been sent to jail.
Wall Street executives are notably absent from the list of those criminally charged over the past 18 months. In fact, few investment bankers and analysts were even barred from the industry following the government's big billion dollar settlement with ten investment firms, a settlement the subject of hearings today in the Senate and our "Quote of the Day" comes from that hearing on Capitol Hill.
"Without holding executives and CEOs personally accountable for the wrongdoing that occurred under their watch, I do not believe that Wall Street will change its ways or that investor confidence will be restored" that from the chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, Senator Richard Shelby.
The dollar today rebounded slightly against the Euro; nonetheless, four year lows against the European currency. Joining me now to discuss what is happening, what some are calling an export of America we're joined by Chief Investment Strategist at Prudential Edward Yardeni, good to have you with us.
EDWARD YARDENI, PRUDENTIAL SECURITIES: Thank you, Lou.
DOBBS: Four year lows for the dollar against the Euro, we are seeing massive current account deficits, trade deficits, jobs being shipped all over the world, how much concern is there on your part?
YARDENI: Well, the lower dollar actually is a short-term positive for the U.S. economy. It helps to make our exports more competitive. Really the biggest negative is for Europe. It's really a strong Euro that's creating problems over there.
And, you know, the Federal Reserve, just the other day, just yesterday, said that their concerned about deflation. One way to move away from that kind of risk is to have a weaker dollar, which brings a little bit of inflation back home.
DOBBS: A weaker dollar nonetheless making European products more expensive here. We are sending jobs abroad while we have unemployment here, a jobless recovery. Where does the dollar fit in that mix, Ed?
YARDENI: Well, the dollar to the extent that it has been weaker makes our exports more competitive and, as a result, I think that some of our companies already are showing better profits overseas and, of course, profits earning overseas are worth more in dollars when the dollar gets weaker and that's helped some of the first quarter profits numbers which has helped the stock market.
DOBBS: And in helping the stock market we have seen concurrently a significant slowdown in capital flows.
YARDENI: Right.
DOBBS: Particularly from European to our markets, both equities and fixed income.
YARDENI: Absolutely right, Lou.
DOBBS: And that looks troublesome.
YARDENI: Absolutely. I mean foreign investors really have stopped buying our equities and some have really stopped completely after the massive purchases of about two, three years ago.
However, foreign central banks, particularly in Asia, are buying a lot of our government securities and our federal agency securities, mortgage backed securities, and that's why we've seen this unusual situation where the dollar's been weak and yet the bond yield instead of going up have actually gone down because foreign central banks in Asia don't want to see their currency get too strong. It's the Europeans that have let their currencies get too strong, I think.
DOBBS: Ed Yardeni we thank you very much for joining us here.
YARDENI: Thank you, Lou.
DOBBS: When we continue our "Thought of the Day," a timely reminder about the cost of freedom.
And some of this country's scandal-ridden corporate titans had expensive taste in art along with almost everything else, and now much of that art collection is on the auction block. Jan Hopkins will have the story of criminal art.
And then, a provocative new campaign taking aim at Detroit and challenging American car companies to clean up their act. Arianna Huffington of the Detroit Project and Robert Kennedy, Jr. of the Natural Resources Defense Fund join me next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) DOBBS: American drivers love their SUVs but even their owners are frustrated by their lack of fuel efficiency. GM's Hummer ranked dead last in the new J.D. Power poll of vehicle quality.
A new ad campaign that takes on all gas guzzlers and challenges the companies that make them began airing today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANNOUNCER: It is the first car built for the road and the world around it that could take America to work in the morning without sending it to war in the afternoon, with a sophisticated braking system that stops our dependence on foreign oil.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DOBBS: Joining us now, the people behind that ad, syndicated columnist Arianna Huffington, co-founder of the Detroit Project, she joins us from Washington, and Robert Kennedy, Jr., the senior attorney of the National Resources Defense Council, thank you both, and Bob Kennedy joining us from Los Angeles.
First let me ask you, Arianna, what do you want to accomplish with this poll, this ad?
ARIANNA HUFFINGTON, SYNDICATED COLUMNIST: Well this ad, Lou, is intended to really put pressure on Detroit and on Washington. To use the existing technology, to put on the road hybrid SUVs, fuel efficient cars, the consumers can have all the choices they want.
Detroit is really in trouble, as you know. They have to use zero financing to unload their cars and $8 billion of advertising a year. So, how about taking the lead instead of letting the Japanese lead the way once again, both in cars like the (UNINTELLIGIBLE), the smaller car that Toyota puts out and Lexus has now announced its putting out a Lexus SUV. The technology exists. Let's use it.
DOBBS: Robert Kennedy, you are in absolute sympathy and agreement on that objective?
ROBERT KENNEDY, JR., NATL. RESOURCES DEF. COUNCIL: Toyota is expecting to put out 300,000 hybrid cars by a year, by the end of the decade. The technologies are there for us to have SUVs. Next year, Toyota is going to release an SUV that has the power of a V8 but it has the fuel efficiency of a compact.
Within a decade they're going to be selling 300,000 a year and Detroit is losing ground. Ford and General Motors are sinking backwards and we are losing our capacity to maintain market share.
But if we raise, Lou, if we raise fuel efficiency on our automobiles by seven miles per gallon we eliminate 100 percent of Mid East oil imports into this country so this is the best domestic policy, economic policy, that we can have. It's also the best foreign policy that we can have. DOBBS: Accepting that let me ask you both, what can you accomplish that traditional market forces can not? The consumer speaks loudly and certainly most often far more effectively than either regulators or special interest groups of any kind.
HUFFINGTON: Well unfortunately, Lou, this is not a free market. You know we have at the moment massive tax credits for very large SUVs who have, as you know, an SUV loophole that allows them not to have to comply to fuel efficiency standards if they are over 8,500 pounds in weight. And so there are many disincentives at the moment to doing the right thing quite against the public interest.
DOBBS: Well, Arianna that doesn't - if I may say that doesn't affect mini SUVs. That would affect only the largest of the SUVs.
HUFFINGTON: Yes, but that's a very substantial part of the market.
DOBBS: But...
KENNEDY: But also, Lou, we're not dealing with a free market because giant subsidies, about $55 billion a year in federal subsidies to the oil industry allows the oil industry to artificially lower the price of gasoline. If we were paying the true price of gasoline, we'd be paying $4 or $5 a gallon like they're paying in Europe and consumers would be screaming at Detroit to build us cars that get 40 miles per gallon and Detroit would be producing SUVs that get 40 miles per gallon.
Because of that market distortion we have created a problem, a national security problem and an air quality problem in this county and, at some point, the government has to step in and intervene and say to Detroit you have to build the kind of cars that you would be building if market forces did prevail.
DOBBS: Do you know think though, both of you, that I mean Detroit is making its decisions, it's responding to consumers, and if indeed Toyota or any other company comes up with a large SUV that gets 40 miles to the gallon and takes over the market they will have spoken? Isn't that really the logical way that this should unfold?
HUFFINGTON: But, Lou, look at the '70s. Remember the whole debate about seat belts? Remember Detroit telling us that they couldn't do it. It would put them out of jobs and it would bankrupt them. There was all this amazing debate at the time and now they think that...
DOBBS: Oh, I don't care, you know, I understand. I'm not saying to you - whether they go bankrupt or not is really their choice. This is America. If they can't deal with the marketplace and someone else can deliver the product let them go bankrupt, right?
HUFFINGTON: No, what I'm saying is that very often when we are talking about innovation like the seat belts were in the '70s or the hybrid technology is now, there is tremendous resistance from Detroit and, I know it doesn't make sense, but that's how it is. They prefer to spend millions of dollars every year lobbying Congress. You know they spent $37 million last year alone to stop the fuel efficiency standard legislation that Senators McCain and Kerry had put forward.
DOBBS: Robert Kennedy, you get the last word here.
KENNEDY: Well the problem is, Lou, is that the choices that they're making now, which are driven by the lobbying dollars that they're sending to Washington are imposing costs on the rest of us, huge national security costs where we now spend $60 billion a year protecting the oil industry's infrastructure in the Mid East because we can not live without Mid Eastern oil.
We're also injuring our credibility when we're trying to bring democracy to the Mid East because people over there think this is just an oil grab. The automobile industry is imposing those national security burdens on the rest of Americans and, at some point, the government needs to step in and say look we need you to put yourselves where the market would put you if we did have a free market economy in this country.
DOBBS: Robert Kennedy, Jr., Arianna Huffington, we thank you both for joining us here tonight.
HUFFINGTON: Thank you.
DOBBS: That brings us to our poll question tonight. "How much does gas mileage influence your decision to buy an automobile, a lot, somewhat, not at all?" Cast your vote at cnn.com/moneyline. We'll have the preliminary results coming up in the broadcast.
The results of last night's poll question, "How important is it to U.S. credibility that Iraqi weapons of mass destruction be found?" Seventy-seven percent of you said very important, ten percent said somewhat, 12 percent said not at all. This may not be a scientific poll but your answers are very important to us and we find them illuminating.
When we continue, speaking of illumination, the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, Congressman Bill Thomas, will be here to talk about a $550 billion tax cut proposal that his committee passed last night.
And, the executives behind some of the worst corporate scandals in history had expensive taste. Billions of dollars in artwork from Enron, Vivendi, and others on the auction block, Jan Hopkins with the story. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
DOBBS: The scaled back version in some ways of President Bush's tax cut proposal expected to go before the House on Friday. The House Ways and Means Committee approved the $550 billion package last night. This version would reduce taxes on corporate dividends. The president had wanted to eliminate them. Joining me now, from Capitol Hill, the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee Congressman Bill Thomas. Good to have you with us, Mr. Chairman.
REP. BILL THOMAS (R), CALIFORNIA: Nice to be here again, Lou.
DOBBS: The principle difference in your mind between the version you passed last night and where you were going into this?
THOMAS: Well, the House had passed the president's plan.
DOBBS: Right.
THOMAS: Which was to take the double taxation of dividends away and tax it only once, remove the individual side, bring it to zero. We did that. We passed that. The Senate could not handle it and as we now find out later there's a whole lot more they can't handle.
And what we did then in the budget agreement between the House and the Senate was to do the unusual thing of having the Senate reconcile, as we say, to a $350 billion tax package and the House reconcile to $550 billion.
The old boring House said we were going to bring it up on Tuesday, which we did and passed it, and we're going to bring it up on Friday and we're going to pass it.
We're not much news if you're looking for controversy. We have a package that will lower the dividends and the capital gains tax rate to 15 percent. If you're lower income level, i.e. you're taxed at only the ten or the 15 percent bracket you only have a five percent tax on dividends and capital gains.
DOBBS: You know, Congressman, I can hear people right now doing some quick calculations, saying that is a tremendous windfall for investors, and is it a disproportionate windfall in this tax cut?
THOMAS: Well, I don't think it is, Lou, because the world has changed. Where people used to work a long time for a company and they would get a pension, it was a defined benefit. Now people more and more are getting defined contributions.
DOBBS: Right.
THOMAS: And they have to be an active participant in their retirement, and for people at moderate incomes to say if you do invest in the market, if you do go into capital assets, you'll only have to pay a five percent rate. I think it encourages more participation in areas that can provide a better return.
DOBBS: And, again, in terms of stimulating this economy because this tax cut, and I can't recall a time when I have heard this said of a tax cut in my career of covering tax cuts, this tax cut is all about jobs. Now you have focused on depreciation bonuses. You focused on expenses for small business, and accelerating in fact the definition of small business capitalization. Is it doing enough to stimulate the creation of doubt?
THOMAS: Well, another important part of that equation, Lou, is you can have a sale and that's all you do with the expensing depreciation. For the next two years you'll have an enormous advantage is you buy something during that time. But if you don't have any money to buy it, it doesn't do any good. So, what we've done is added also the net operating loss carry-back, it's called.
DOBBS: Right.
THOMAS: It means that if you are losing money now instead of the usual two years under the law you can go back five years and offset current losses against profits you may have had somewhere over the past five years.
That also then creates the money for you. You now have cash you otherwise wouldn't have had to actually participate. It's estimated that that provision, along with the dividends and capital gains, will produce about 1.2 million jobs by the end of calendar year '04.
DOBBS: Congressman, we have time for one quick question and one quick answer if you would entertain it. How big do you project the deficit to be in 2004 after this tax cut at the $500 billion level is passed?
THOMAS: It's difficult to tell. I don't know that we'll get 500. The key is if you're spending deficit dollars to invest in the future to bring in more revenue that's not bad. At least we're not doing what the old regime used to do, spend deficit dollars to create spending programs that grew. It's a better way to spend the deficit because we're not going to get more revenue if we don't turn this economy around.
DOBBS: Congressman Bill Thomas, the powerful chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, as always good to have you here.
THOMAS: Nice to be here, thanks again.
DOBBS: Speaking of taxes and debt, we're going to keep track of the national debt on this broadcast with the help of the national debt clock, this near Times Square in New York City.
We can see the national debt tonight at just about $6.5 trillion, your family's share of that debt roughly $70,000. Don't write a check yet. We'll be coming to you later.
Turning to our "Thought of the Day" and the price of freedom today's quote from a man who defended it throughout his tenure. "Freedom is a fragile thing and is never more than one generation away from extinction. It is not ours by inheritance. It must be fought for and defended constantly by each generation," that from the 40th President of the United States Ronald Reagan. Some of the world's most scandal ridden companies are hitting the prestigious New York auction circuit trying to raise some much needed cash. It seems many of the most famous examples of corporate greed shared a love of art.
Jan Hopkins has the story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was more of an executive suite when you got off the elevator.
JAN HOPKINS, CNNfn CORRESPONDENT: Right.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) and then the (UNINTELLIGIBLE) was there as well.
HOPKINS (voice-over): Jean Moreau (ph) painting used to hang outside the executive offices at Seagram's headquarters in New York. It is now on the auction block at Christie's. Vivendi is selling the entire 2,500-piece Seagram collection.
Jean-Marie Messier inherited the collection when he bought the company in 2000. Messier and Vivendi are now being investigated for securities fraud in France and the U.S. Messier used to look at this Mark Roscoe (ph) painting when he came to his office. Seagram's bought it to go in its new building at the end of the 1950s.
MARC PORTER, CHRISTIE'S: They probably paid $10,000 or $15,000 at the most for this at the time and now it's worth between $6-$8 million we think.
HOPKINS: The famous Picasso curtain that hangs in the Four Seasons Restaurant is also being sold by Vivendi to help pay down its $13 billion debt.
Two paintings that belonged to former ImClone CEO Sam Waksal are being auctioned by Sotheby's this spring. Waksal is waiting for sentencing on charges he avoided paying more than $1 million in taxes on his art purchases.
Sotheby's is selling a (UNINTELLIGIBLE) from that collection valued at $2-$3 million and a Roy Lichtenstein (ph) estimated at more than a half a million.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It does not light up but composed the sort of Hollywood style.
HOPKINS: The $4 million Enron collection of contemporary art is the main attraction at the spring auction at Phillips Gallery in New York. (UNINTELLIGIBLE) was on the committee that selected the art. Last week, she was charged in connection with the scandal at Enron that led to the demise of the company.
Enron creditors will benefit from the art auction of pieces like "Soft Light Switches" by Claus Oldenberg (ph) which should sell for $500,000 to $700,000.
JOSHUA HOLDEMAN, PHILLIPS DEPURY & LUXEMBOURG: Anytime you have a name that is so well known as Enron or any other corporation it always adds interest and value to a property or a collection.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOPKINS: The first painting in the corporate crime auction goes on the block here at Christie's in just a few minutes. It's the Jean Moreau that hung outside of Jean-Marie Messier's office. Christie's estimates it will go for $400,000 to $600,000, so Lou do you want me to put in a bid for you?
DOBBS: Jan, thanks for the thought but I'm still sort of hung up on that soft light switch. How much was that?
HOPKINS: Right. That was - they paid about $560,000 and they might get $700,000, kind of appropriate for Enron, don't you think?
DOBBS: Well, not wanting to comment on art but I think not all of the crimes have been committed on the corporate side. Jan Hopkins, thank you very much.
When we continue, we'll have the preliminary results of our poll tonight. We'll also have your thoughts and I'll share a few of my thoughts about the president's tax cut. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
DOBBS: Now the preliminary results of our poll. "How much does gas mileage influence your decision to buy a car?" Sixty percent of you said a lot, 27 percent said somewhat, 13 percent not at all.
Now, a lot of you have asked me to comment on the president's tax cut proposal to give you my opinion, so here goes. The purpose of the cut, the president says, is to create jobs, more than a million of them, and in a typical slowdown or jobless recovery, which is what we're experiencing that would be a terrific idea.
But this isn't a typical jobless recovery. This time we're emerging from two years of declining business investment, not a contraction in consumer spending, and cutting taxes on dividends isn't, in my opinion at least, likely to be much of a stimulus to this economy certainly not in the short term.
Philosophically, I'm against cutting dividend taxes because it means that work will be taxed disproportionately higher than investment and I don't think that's fair to the working men and women of this country.
Admittedly, either case can be argued. That's just where I come down on it. So, I'm not a big fan of the president's plan, and I should tell you I'm certainly not a big fan of the Democratic plan.
But if we're going to create jobs, let's create jobs. Accelerating individual tax rate cuts is helpful. Raising incentives for small business is certainly helpful and anytime we can help small business in this country we should do so. They're the ones creating most of the jobs.
Big business needs leadership from CEOs who are certainly highly paid but who right now are tepid and almost milk toast in their enthusiasm for the growth of their companies. Kick them in the pants, Mr. President. Tell them to show leadership and earn those big bucks.
With deficits rising this year to more than $400 billion, I believe that's a lot of stimulus already in this economy and I believe the economy is well on its way to stronger growth, but then I'm not running for election next year.
Now a quick look at some of your thoughts, Marcia Graham from Fairmont, West Virginia, wrote about the importance of finding Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, saying: "It is not important to find WMDs in Iraq because the funding of terrorist has been stopped by a change of regime in Iraq."
Bob Brawner of Bainbridge Island, Washington disagreed, saying: "Finding weapons of mass destruction is extremely important to the credibility of the president. He said that was the reason we went to war against Iraq."
We love hearing from you. Send us your thoughts at loudobbs@cnn.com. For all of us here, goodnight from New York.
"LIVE FROM THE HEADLINES" with Paula Zahn will be coming up next.
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